


Harry's Choice

by VelvetMace



Series: Eobard wins AU [3]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Betrayal, M/M, Mind Control, Past Cisco/Eobard, Past Non-Con, Slavery, Threats of Rape/Non-Con
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-05
Updated: 2017-07-05
Packaged: 2018-11-28 04:23:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,248
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11410128
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VelvetMace/pseuds/VelvetMace
Summary: Eobard Thawne is gone, but his legacy lives on.  Cisco's attempts to put him in the past are thwarted when Harry arrives from Earth-2 to help with Zoom.  Now Cisco is caught in an impossible spot, caught between Eobard's orders, helping Team Flash, and dealing with a stranger from another planet who has far more power over Cisco than he knows.





	Harry's Choice

 

Cisco turned his head when Barry entered the Cortex.“Oh, yo, so I’ve been working on boosting gamma-wave accentuater on the satellite — and you aren’t alone!Um, Hi?” 

Barry’s pensive face registered first, because it was the face that Barry always got when he was about to break bad news.The shadow hiding behind Barry’s frame came a curious but distant second.That is until the man stepped fully into the Cortex and gave Cisco a great view of his profile. 

“Oh Jesus, you’re back!” Cisco squealed, jumping up from his chair.“Why the hell are you back?Stay away from me.”Cisco backed himself clumsily into a corner. Cisco’s body felt an electric shock of adrenaline.It couldn’t be.No he promised!He was gone!

“It’s not him,” said Barry.“It’s the Wells from Earth-2.”

Wells from Earth-2 had stopped looking at the autobiography he was carrying and stared at Cisco like he were some kind of interesting zoo exhibit.“I don’t usually inspire this much fear when I walk into a room.”

Caitlin came over and put a comforting hand on Cisco’s elbow, helping him to rise from the tangle of wires and components he’d backed himself into.“Why are you back,” she snapped.“You left us a great speech about how you’d deceived us all these years, right before you destroyed the city and jumped off to the future leaving us to deal with the mess.”

“I’ve never met any of you before in my life,” said Wells, in an oddly amiable way.

“It’s not him,” repeated Barry, more forcefully.“It’s his doppelgänger.Only not really, because our Wells wasn’t actually Wells and this Wells really is Wells —“

“I can’t be here,” said Cisco.He imagined he could feel the nanites tingling in his head, ready to accept new orders.He couldn’t go through that again.Just looking at him was enough to start up the feelings of inappropriate desire.And oh jeez, no.Just. No.“I gotta go.”He edged out of the room.“Let me know when he’s gone.”

 

 

“— Not a threat to us…” Barry finished lamely as his long haired friend jogged away down one of the inner corridors. He rubbed his eyebrow. “Okay, that didn’t go well.”Then he turned to his female colleague.“Dr.Wells, this is Caitlin Snow, our —”

“So,” Harry interrupted.“I take it my doppelgänger was a real asshole.What did he do?Beat Juanito there with a stick every Sunday?”

Barry just shook his head.“He betrayed all of us, but Cisco took it hardest.”

“I wouldn’t go that far,” disputed Snow, angrily. “I took it pretty damn hard when that singularity he caused killed my husband.”

“It’s not a contest,” said Barry, trying to be diplomatic but doing a pretty crap job of it judging by Snow’s hardening expression.“We all despise him.But Cisco and Eobard Thawne — that’s who our Harrison Wells actually was — they were super close to each other, especially towards the end.It messed him up.It messed up all of us, really, but Cisco won’t talk about it.At all. To anyone.Ever.”

“Well, that’s tragic,” said Harry, rolling his eyes.“Can I recommend a therapist?” Despite his dismissive words, Harry found himself looking speculatively at the hall Cisco had retreated to.

Snow’s reaction to him made sense.Allen’s made sense. If his look alike was as bad as Allen said he was, Cisco should have been angry, bitter, and suspicious like Snow, or cautiously accepting like Allen.Not terrified and what was that he’d sensed for a second?Star-struck?Now that was just weird.

Whatever.This drama was a distraction, but oh, it seemed it wasn’t over yet.Because look at Snow, there, with both her hands fisted tight in anger, staring at Harry like he was a cockroach she wanted to stomp on.

“How do you know this isn’t our Wells, doing a whole mind screw thing again,” she said in a loud whisper.

“He’s not.”Barry put his hands on her narrow shoulders and held her awkwardly like he wanted to give her a hug but wasn’t sure how she’d take it.“He saved my life.Besides, it would make no sense for Eobard Thawne to come back after spending so long trying to get back to his own time. That video he left us was pretty explicit.We’ve met other doppelgängers.And, technically speaking, this isn’t even Thawne’s doppelgänger.We never met our world’s Dr. Wells.He might have been a really nice guy.”

 _Unlikely,_ thought Harry. 

It was like the energy drained from Snow.“I guess you’re right.”She turned away and sat down behind a desk.Her expression was still skeptical but not as openly hostile. Good enough.

“Well, great,” said Harry, clapping his hands to figuratively dismiss the whole idea. “I don’t know any Birdie Thawne.Or care.We have work to do. You can tell Sissy that I’m not going to eat him.”

“Cisco,” corrected Barry.

“Close enough.”All in all, it was a less than auspicious beginning.

 

 

 

“Cisco,” Barry pleaded, three weeks later.“You have to come in to Star Labs.We need you.” 

He sat on the edge of Cisco’s desk at Central City Police Headquarters.As a provisional civilian “liaison”with a dubious ability to create gizmos that stopped metahumans, Cisco didn’t get the spacious, cushy lab like Barry. No, he got a corner desk in the room reserved for people the department didn’t quite know what to do with.

He was currently sharing the room with educational outreach, a diversity training officer, and the intern who monitored social media, which meant that he had very little actual space to work in and less privacy.The educational outreach and the diversity officers were pretending not to listen in.Social media had her earphones on and probably wasn’t.

“I really can’t,” said Cisco, feeling like a total tool.“Not while you know who is there.” 

Barry had invited Wells to join team Flash and there wasn’t a damn thing Cisco could do or say to stop him.Barry’s reasons were reasonable: Wells knew about the metahumans who were somehow getting through the portals to attack Barry. He knew about the speedster, Zoom, who was behind the attacks. He was brilliant and full of ideas and had a gun that could knock a metahuman out.Why hadn’t Cisco thought up that?

If it hadn’t been for Eobard’s mind-control nanites, Cisco would have been eager to work with him.But even the thought of being in the same room with DoppelWells filled Cisco with terror, and he literally couldn’t tell anyone why.

“We’re calling him Harry now,” said Barry.“And why not?All I’m asking for is an explanation.”

“He makes me uncomfortable.” Wow, that came out sounding incredibly whiny.Cisco winced.The diversity training officer looked up at him, then went back to her typing.Barry caught the glance and winced as well.

“I get that.He makes all of us uncomfortable.But you know, the thing needs to be… you know…thing.”And Barry stopped awkwardly because this was not a conversation he dared have in front of strangers.“Come up to my lab at least.We can talk about it.”

Cisco hung his head with frustration.Because even without the audience this wasn’t a conversation he and Barry could have.Eobard Thawne had made oh so explicitly sure of that.

Eobard, bless his shriveled evil soul, had never deactivated the nanites, hadn’t even put in some kind of delayed trigger to turn them off once he was gone.Maybe he was keeping open the possibility of coming back and messing with Cisco some more, but Cisco suspected it was more likely that Eobard just never gave it a thought.

As a result every single order Eobard had given Cisco was still in full goddamn effect, thank you very much.Including the one that said “don’t tell _anyone_ about the nanites.”Hence:the current awkward dilemma. 

To Eobard’s credit, there was no reason to think that a rift might open up and drop an alternate universe Dr. Wells into Cisco’s life.But boy, that’s what happened.And the nanites apparently couldn’t tell the difference.Same look, same voice. Wells could order him around and he’d have to obey — and Wells wouldn’t even know why.

It had already happened once, even though Cisco was trying his hardest to make sure Well’s path and his didn’t cross.He’d been at Star Labs in the small hours of the morning, working on a gizmo that Barry had begged him for, when Wells had walked into his workroom.  Before Cisco could stop him, Wells had casually said, “Don’t get up, I’m just grabbing a spanner.” Cisco had been forced to sit in fear of not being able to ever get up again while Wells dug casually through all his drawers. He’d have been stuck there still if he hadn’t straight out asked “Can I get up now?” and Wells had replied “Sure,” as he walked back out the door.

Cisco couldn’t tell anyone of his predicament, and he couldn’t modify the nanites himself.It was a perfect catch-22.The only solution was to be an obstinate, whiny brat and let everyone down until Wells’ doppelgänger decided to go home.It was beyond frustrating!

“Well?” prompted Barry.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” said Cisco lamely.

“Cisco,” said Barry desperately. “It’s really important.”

A thought struck Cisco.Wait, maybe there was a solution that would work. The nanites only took orders in the _physical_ presence of Wells.Not a vibe, not a recording, not over a video feed.And that was a huge loophole if ever there was one.

He stood up with excitement. “Okay.I can do this.Give me two hours and meet me at my workroom at Star Labs.”

Barry practically melted with relief.“Thank you.I’ll try to keep Harry out of the room.”

“No, it’s fine, he can be there.In fact, I want him there. 6 pm sharp.I’ll be there.”

Barry gave him a curious look but then shrugged.“If you say so.”

 

It didn’t actually take Cisco two hours to get back to his apartment and do the necessary hacking, so he treated himself to a hot chocolate and spent a few moments sipping the sweetness and getting into the groove.This was so going to work.

At six pm sharp, he hit the button on his home computer and his workroom at Star Labs blinked onto his screen.The main view was straight out of his central desk monitor,inset in the top corner was a feed from the security camera. Harry Wells and Barry were already in the room waiting.To Cisco’s annoyance Harry was seated in Cisco’s chair like it belonged to him.

“He’s late,” said Harry with annoyance, voice just a bit tinny through the speakers, but oh still that sexy breathy growl that Cisco remembered so well.A shudder of anticipatory pleasure ran through his body. _Stop it!_ he told himself. “You know if I hadn’t seen him myself I’d suspect his existence was some kind running gag you and Snow made up.”

“I’m here,” said Cisco.

“What, where,” said Barry.He looked around then leaned over and peered into the monitor.“Cisco?Where are you?”

“I’m at home. Alone. This line is completely encrypted.Feel free to ask me anything you need.”

“What are you doing at home?” asked Barry.

“Telecommuting.”

Wells leaned forward until his face filled the entire screen.“Get your ass over here, Ramon.Honestly, if you weren’t so good at what you do, I’d tell Barry to cut you loose, but I’ve seen your work.We need you.So get over yourself.”

Cisco pursed his lips, and vividly remembered how Dr. Wells would chew him out when he was disappointed with him.It used to make him miserable with embarrassment.That is until Eobard had found a better way to get Cisco to behave.Then being angry was just one more excuse to take Cisco to the lounge and “adjust his attitude”.And oh, would he ever.And when Cisco was nothing more than malleable putty, ready, willing, desperate for any word or touch Eobard cared to give him, only then would they fuck like wild things. And oh, he was so glad there was no one in the room to see his crotch right now, because his lizard brain had the two states, anger and orgasms, completely connected.

 _Pull yourself together,_ he told himself.It’s not Eobard, the rapist who used any excuse to fuck him. It’s not Dr. Wells, the facade he’d admired for years.This was Harry, douchebag from another planet, who Cisco barely knew. Sex wasn’t going to happen no matter how angry they got at each other.

“Well?” snapped Harry.

Cisco snapped back to the present and tried to project firmness.“I’m not going to be in the same room as you.So if you want me to work with you, this is the way it’s going to be.”

“Cisco,” said Barry helplessly.“I wish you’d tell me what was wrong.”

Okay, this was Cisco’s chance.He’d had a vibe not long ago where he’d told Harry about the reality where Eobard killed him. In the vibe, Harry had accepted the answer with a shit eating grin but hadn’t pushed any further.Murder was a perfectly good explanation for why Cisco wouldn’t want to be in the same room as him.

“Yeah,” said Harry, his sarcasm cutting like a light saber through Cisco’s thoughts.“What is your problem, Ramon? Did evil uncle Eobard touch you in a naughty place?”

Cisco’s face went cold and his mind blanked out.For a second he couldn’t say anything.

“Oh… oh, Jesus,” said Barry, horrified.

“I see,” said Harry.“Well, I’m not him. Your virtue is safe with me. So take a Xanax and let’s get to work.”

Cisco leaned back in exasperation and ran both hands through his hair.He’d been hiding that nasty nugget of truth from Barry for six months and Harry had guessed it out of the blue!Well, great.Eobard always hoped Barry would find out and now it happened, just a few months past any practical need for it.

“Are you okay?” Barry asked in a hushed tone, as if he were afraid that Cisco would burst like a cartoon soufflé. Ha.If breaking were to happen, it would have happened long ago, Barry. 

“I’m fine,” said Cisco with dry annoyance.“Except that big mouth Harry here is part of our team now.I’m totally fine.So let’s just do this, okay.”

“Agreed,” said Harry at once.And down to work they got.

 

 

 

The meeting broke up when Allen ran out to Ramon’s apartment to deliver the broken visor of the latest metahuman menace.Ramon seemed to be of the opinion he could tease something from residual radiation patterns and then retask a satellite to help Allen locate the owner.

It sounded like complete bullshit to Harry, but Allen accepted Ramon at his word and ran out.

Harry sat in Ramon’s chair and pondered.

Nope.On second thought it really was complete bullshit.There was no way that Ramon had the kind of equipment he’d need to detect patterns of residual radiation lying around his apartment.There was no reason to think there would be any distinctive radiation in the first place.What the hell was he up to?

Beyond the obvious of hating Harry so much it was fucking with the job, that is.

Harry was no stranger to being hated.He’d been told he was an arrogant jerk by enough reliable people to believe it.Normally he didn’t mind it — it kept people from making frivolous demands of his time and attention — but in this case he didn’t deserve it and it was getting in the way.He’d done a lot of shitty things over the years, but diddling the lab techs was never one of them.

He was getting to hate Eobard Thawne as much as everyone else in this place.

But the more he thought about it, the less sense Ramon’s behavior made even on that front.Because once that ugly secret got out, Ramon seemed relieved.Cheerful even.The longer they skyped, the more Ramon sounded like the gushing fans Harry sometimes attracted at home. That just wasn’t right.Either Ramon was genuinely scared of him, or not.

“Well,” said Harry to the empty workroom.“It’s obvious I’m not going to get anything useful accomplished until I get to the bottom of this.So, I think it’s time I got to know the guy who stole my face a bit better.”

He’d broken Ramon’s password weeks ago.Unlike Snow’s and Allen’s it had been a real pleasurable challenge.But not as much of a pleasure as having unfettered access to all of Ramon’s ideas had been.It was while going over the completed specs of several dozen unique devices that he realized that the resident ghost might be someone worth having on his team. 

Then there was the highly strategic and timely intel that Ramon seemed to be able to pluck out of thin air.That made Ramon not only useful but intriguing as well. There was absolutely nothing in Ramon’s computer or workspace to give a hint at where all this highly relevant information was coming from.Allen and Snow insisted that Ramon wasn’t a metahuman, but Harry wasn’t so sure about that.It would definitely explain some things.

But not all. 

Whatever the problem was, it was clearly Thawnes fault.So who was this guy?According to the autobiography, Thawne was a living saint and a gift to mankind.A man who’d turned his grief for Tess into the inspiration to build a particle accelerator that would open up the secrets of free energy, peace, and love to all.

What a load of fucking bullcrap.Harry had built his particle accelerator to make buttloads of profit and that was what Creepy Uncle Eobard must have been up to as well. 

Except… no.That wasn’t true.Where was that recording he’d left Flash and team?Harry hunted down the file on Ramon’s computer.There it was.

His own face suddenly smiled apologetically back at him from the screen. “Hello, friends.By now you’ve watched the security footage where I entered my time capsule and disappeared.You may even have found the diverter I embedded in the pipeline to refocus Barry’s speed force to my needs. You are probably pretty surprised and upset at me….”

_No fucking kidding._

“You’ll probably be even more upset to hear that leaving you has been my ultimate goal the whole time. Everything I’ve done in the last 15 years, creating Star Labs, building the accelerator, the accident that created the metahumans, and, of course, training Barry, has all been in order to create a bridge between your time and my own.”

There.Harry had created metahumans through innocent fucking up.For Thawne it was his goal.

Thawne went on for some time, telling his backstory, his motives, his actions, all in a kind of self-indulgent ramble that made Harry cringe and snarl: _Get to the point!_ The upshot was that Thawne didn’t give a damn about the destruction he’d caused or burning all of his friendships to the ground.He was fucking proud of himself.

“Before I go, I have just a few words for each of you,” said Thawne, signaling he was coming to the end of his self-indulgent gloat.“Maybe you don’t want to hear them now, but in the future they might be some comfort.At least, I hope they will be.

“Caitlin:I’m sorry that you and Ronnie had your plans derailed for so long.I’m glad to see you were able to work around his powers and still build a life together.You’ve been loyal and caring and an instrumental help to my cause and I will never forget you for that.Now go on and forget me.

“Cisco: My deepest regret is that I couldn’t bring you with me to the future.Believe me, I tried to figure a way, but I needed you to monitor and regulate the spikes in speed force or I wouldn’t have been able to make the jump. I couldn’t do that from inside the capsule.I will always treasure our time together.Everything I’ve done to you, I’ve done out of love and would do again in an instant.Don’t be sad that I’m gone.I’d make that an order, but, as you know, I can’t.

“Barry.Barry.It will probably surprise you to know that I don’t hate you anymore.I did for a very long time — longer than you’d think.But watching you grow up, working with you day to day, I’ve come to see a side of you I didn’t know before. I’ve grown to feel affection and even a sense of fatherly pride in you. You’re smart, you’re brave, you mean well, and at times you even approach thoughtfulness. As of now your future is in your hands.

“So I will dispense two last bits of advice to you:The world doesn’t revolve around you and what you want, Barry.Don’t let all the fame and flattery go so far to your head that you start thinking you can do no harm.The line between hero and villain is a perilously easy one to cross, and it always begins with thinking that you are justified in putting your wants ahead of everything else. 

“The second bit of advice is:Don’t mess with time travel, Barry. The consequences are unpredictable and savage.I lost three decades of my life, did terrible things to a lot of people, all to fix a problem that wouldn’t have existed if I’d stayed in my own time.I don’t wish the same on you.

“To anyone else who misses me — don’t.I used you. I’m not a good guy.And it’s likely I won’t even remember you now that I don’t have to deal with you.”

“Now,play this last bit for the police.”He then went on to confess to murder. Not just one, but dozens, starting with Barry’s mom and ending with a reporter who’d gotten too nosy.He even held up a map to where he’d been hiding the bodies.

You know, if Thawne had wanted to make Harry’s mission in this world as difficult and problematic as possible, he really couldn’t have come up with a better way.Harry barely dared leave the lab for fear of being arrested and imprisoned for Thawne’sfreely confessed crimes.

But … that was just a diversion to the real issue.What was important was Ramon.Harry ran the message back to where Thawne was talking to the ghost.There was the stuff about giving Ramon orders, which was rather high handed, but that wasn’t what had grabbed Well’s interest.

He rewound a few more seconds and there: _Everything I did to you._ Interesting word choice.“To” you, not “for” you.

“What did you do to him?” Harry asked the paused screen.Thawne’s open mouthed mug just gaped back at him.Harry turned off the playback and leaned back in Ramon’s chair, steepling his fingers.

Well, from Ramon’s guilty deer-caught-in-the-headlights impersonation, it was pretty clear there had been some boss-employee after hours hanky-panky.Given the flexibility of Ramon’s imagination and the lethality of his toys and it must have been consensual at the time, though still a rather dangerous game to play, given that Thawne clearly needed Ramon’s help for his ultimate escape. 

Unless that was the point.Maybe the path to Ramon’s cooperation was through his pants.Hmm.Perhaps Harry should reconsider his policy against diddling the lab techs.Though it seemed unlikely that Ramon would want a lookalike replacement for the lover who’d so publicly burned him.

So, seducing Ramon would be _one_ thing Thawne had done.What would be the others?

Turned him into a metahuman, obviously.All that suspiciously good but untraceable intel had to come from somewhere, and that somewhere was likely the dark matter in his DNA.But why would Ramon avoid _him_ because of it. No, It had to be something more. 

But what?Snow and Allen had no clue. Thawne was long gone.There was only one person who knew and that person wasn’t going to voluntarily open up about it.

Harry leaned forward and rubbed his jaw.Maybe he shouldn’t give Ramon the choice.

 

 

 

Cisco was just washing up after dinner when the bell to his apartment rang.He was vaguely expecting Barry, but then Barry never bothered with the bell, he just swooped right in. One of these days Cisco would need to talk to him about that, because he wasn’t going to be without a girlfriend forever. Or boyfriend, maybe, since Eobard had fixed Cisco’s libido to prefer people who looked like Dr. Wells. God, that man was so vain.

It was probably a package.He had a few things on order.Nothing expensive or attractive to thieves unless they were really into semiconductors and bearings.The apartment manager usually left them in the hall outside his door.

Without looking through thepeephole, Cisco opened the door, then jumped as Eobard stepped into his personal space.

Not Eobard. _Harry._ Eobard would never look so disheveled.Harry had the hood of his sweatshirt up over his head like some common thug. And he was just about as welcome as one.

“Get out,” Cisco managed to choke.“Out.”He shoved the man out the door.

“Not until we’ve talked.Out of my way.”

Cisco had no choice but to move away from the door and let Harry in. Harry pulled down his hood and looked around Cisco’s apartment, casually appraising it.He noticed Cisco’s desk in the corner and walked over, fingering some of the components he’d left out with casual interest, before putting his hand on Dr. Light’s helmet.He let out a huffy laugh, as if he found something about Cisco’s workbench darkly funny.Cisco wasn’t even going to ask.

“Harry, get out.This is my home and you aren’t invited.You can’t just barge in.”

“Sure, I can.I just did.Close the door. Your nosy neighbors don’t need to see you with a known serial killer.They might get the wrong idea.”

The nanites forced Cisco to close the door before Cisco thought to put himself on the other side of it.He didn’t want to leave Harry alone in his apartment but he wanted to _be_ alone with him even less.

“Come here,” Harry casually ordered.And with that Cisco lost any opportunity to flee. He walked over to the workbench where Harry had sat down.“I don’t see any equipment here that would detect even ordinary radiation.” He lifted up the helmet.“So, tell me, Ramon, exactly how were you planning to detect those extra dimensional signatures?”

Why did he have to be so blunt?It left no wiggle room.

“I wasn’t going to try,” said Cisco, through gritted teeth.

“Thought not.”Harry lifted his wrist at Cisco and looked at the watch display.“You were going to use your powers.You’re a metahuman.So what is it that you do?Some form of clairvoyance?Psychometry, perhaps?”

 _Goddamn it._ “Yeah.Sure.You caught me.I call them vibes, and well, now you know.” 

“Why haven’t you told your friends about them?”asked Harry, seemingly amused by Cisco’s discomfort.

“I don’t know.Because I wasn’t ready yet? I didn’t want them looking at me differently?”

Jesus, he really wished Harry weren’t so damn perceptive. Why couldn’t he just leave him alone? But maybe there was a silver lining in this.Something Eobard had said once: _Let them find out one secret and they won’t look further._ Maybe this would satisfy Harry and he’d go away.

But Harry didn’t seem to be in a hurry to go anywhere.“How does it work?Do you have to touch objects and get visions? Or do they come out of the blue? Is that where all this info has come from?”

“Both ways, touch is more reliable, but I don’t control it, and yes, this is where the info has come from.Satisfied?”

“Not really.I don’t know why you are bothering to keep it a secret.Seems like you’d be the kind that loved having extra powers.Your friends are nice.Not very trusting of you to keep secrets from them.”

“Listen, you don’t know me, so you don’t get to judge me.But if you are going to out me, go ahead, tell them.Just leave.”Cisco risked eye contact, and tried to ignore the sudden absurd burst of attraction that happened whenever he looked too hard at Harry’s face.He kept his own face hard and stared as if to give his words more weight. 

“That’s not it is it,” said Harry, peering at him intensely.“No, it’s more than that.”

“That’s not what?More than what?”

“The reason you’ve been avoiding me.I thought maybe it was because you knew I’d know you were a metahuman and clearly you were trying to keep that a secret.But that’s not it,” said Harry standing up and suddenly grabbing Cisco’s shoulders in his hands.“It’s more than that.”

Cisco’s whole body responded to the touch with mortifying eagerness.He flushed a deep red and looked away, shrugging away from Harry’s touch, turning his back on him, to keep his firming crotch from Harry’s view.

“Yeah, then there’s that. That wasn’t a ‘vibe’, was it? Tell me.”

“No, it wasn’t a vibe,” Cisco was forced to answer.

“You are still in love with Eobard Thawne,” said Harry.

Cisco gasped as feelings of love for Eobard washed over him.And suddenly Eobard’s leaving hurt so much worse. Damn it, Eobard had been careful not to make Cisco fall in love with him and now that was undone by one casual sentence by Harry.And Harry had no clue the kind of power he had over Cisco.Tears welled up in Cisco’s eyes.No this was impossible.

“Take that back!” he shouted, desperately.“Say, ‘you aren’t in love with Eobard Thawne.’”

“You aren’t in love with Eobard Thawne,” Harry repeated.

Immediately the grief let up and Cisco was back to hating Eobard and feeling glad he was gone. He breathed deep and wiped the tears from his face.

“So that’s what he did to you,” breathed Harry in a husky voice.“That’s how he kept you in line and got you to help him.That’s why you didn’t just kill him with one of your toys.”

Cisco breathed deeply.Harry hadn’t ordered him, he didn’t have to reply.He wasn’t sure he should.

“How did he do it?What’s the mechanism?Is it some kind of post hypnotic command?Tell me.”

“He injected me with nanites.”

“That would do it.Are those nanites still active?Answer.”

“Yes.”

“And they are taking my orders?”

“Yes.You know they are!”

“What about other people? Allen, or Snow, or West—“

“No!Just yours.”

“Because I look like Eobard.They can’t tell us apart, can they?They think I’m him.”

“Yes.It’s because you are his doppelgänger.”

“Fascinating.”Harry paced the room, his eyes growing thoughtful.“So tell me, how do I make it work?What are the limitations of my power over you.”

Oh Jesus, Harry was taking this news all too excitedly.Like he’d been given a great gift.“You have to use straight forward literal statements, you can’t order me to do anything I physically can’t do.You have to be physically with me when you make the orders.Other than that you are free to fuck up my life however you want to.There, happy?”

“Deliriously,” said Harry, and he didn’t sound sarcastic at all.

 

 

 

Cisco was giving him a sour face, but Harry didn’t care.His mind was racing with possibilities. Here was someone who literally couldn’t betray him.Someone brilliant, imaginative, with goddamn superpowers.Someone who could keep secrets and put his agenda first.And he wouldn’t have to coddle or lie or really do anything to reciprocate.Cisco was his, delivered up on a platter of nanites.

It was insane. Like Christmas in October.

Oh Eobard, Eobard, you sly devil, you. You knew what you were doing. How did you manage to come up with such a simple, yet perfect way to double your brain power without any downside to you?A perfectly loyal, compliant minion for the price of a few minutes of talking.

With Cisco’s brilliance and powers at his side, he might just be able to beat Zoom after all. 

“Harry,”said Cisco, looking annoyed.“Harry!Hey, pay attention. Say this after me, word for word, ‘I give Cisco Ramon the authority to reprogram his nanites.’”

“I give Cisco Ramon the authority to —“ Harry stopped.“As soon I do that, you are going to order those nanites to not take my orders aren’t you.”

“Well, of course.”

“Yeah, no.You just handed me a fantastic resource, I’m not just going to throw it away.”

“I’m not a ‘resource’, Harry.I’m a human being.”

“If you think humans aren’t resources, you’ve obviously never run a multi-billion dollar research lab.Humans are the most valuable resources there are. And I need everything I can get.”

“For what?To take down Zoom?”

“Exactly.”

“I’ll do that for you.You don’t need nanites to make me.”

“Maybe.Maybe you will.Maybe you won’t be able to do what needs to be done.You have no idea what the stakes are.”

“Yeah, my best friend is being targeted by Zoom.I’m pretty aware of the stakes.”

“My _daughter_ is his captive.I think that trumps Barry.”

“Jesus.”

“Yeah.Jesus. To be honest with you, this may be the first real break I’ve had.Zoom won’t be able to predict I’d have someone like you at my back.This is great.” 

Cisco clicked his tongue.“It’s not great, it’s horrifying. This is my life.You have no idea how much power you have over me.”

“Oh, I have a pretty good idea.”

“Listen, Harry. It’s not that simple.It takes a lot of supervision to make these nanites work right and not screw me up to an impossible extent.One casual order, one off handed remark, and I could end up stuck someplace, unable to move.”

“Like that time I ordered you to stay seated and you had to ask permission to stand up again.” 

Suddenly that interaction made a whole lot more sense. Harry had been aware of Cisco’s distress, but he’d been distracted and hadn’t wanted to delve into it.He had enough problems without taking on anyone else’s.In retrospect, he should have taken more of an interest, he could have had Cisco at his side weeks ago.So much wasted time.

“Exactly like that,” said Cisco.“I could _die_ in some really, really slow, painful, stupid way.Like starve.Eobard had to be really careful what standing orders he left me with.He checked in with me constantly during the day and even sometimes called me at night to make sure I was okay.He knew exactly how every word out of his mouth would affect me.He complained constantly about how much of his time I required.”

“That must have been tough for you.”

“You’ve no idea.”

“Well.I’ll be careful then.Because I need you.”

“Did you not just hear me?This isn’t a gift, it’s a pain in the ass — for _both of us_.Would you really want to put that kind of effort into a complete stranger? ”

“If it will save my daughter, yes I would!”Harry slammed his hands down on Cisco’s workbench.“I would in a hot second.I will.”

Cisco looked stunned.

 

 

No.This was not how this conversation was supposed to run.Harry was supposed to realize what a completely fucked up situation this was and free Cisco out of basic human decency. Or at least out of basic human laziness. Eobard had done this to Cisco out of perverse affection — as a better solution than murder.What was Harry’s excuse?

“No,” he said, flatly denying Harry’s reality.“You aren’t thinking this through, Harry.You aren’t going to be able to put me in a corner and have me work, you are going to need to supervise me.And the others are going to notice something weird going on between us.If they get wind of what you are doing they are going to shove you in a cell.”

“Still worth it,” said Harry.

“Harry —“

“You don’t seem to understand.I’m willing to do _anything_ to save my daughter.For a while there, I thought that Eobard had seduced you in order to get you to cooperate.I came here prepared to do the same thing.”

“What?”Cisco swallowed.His cock twitched.Down, boy.He’s not offering.But sensual memories crowded their way in, the feel of Eobard’s mouth against his, the softness of his hair, the fullness of his cock inside him.And there was Harry standing fully dressed before him in a rumpled hoodie and mussed up hair, looking every bit as enticing as a naked porn star.

“Yeah, that,” said Harry, with a wry grin.“You think I don’t see how you look at me?Like I’m the most beautiful person you’ve ever laid eyes on.Like all I’d have to do was suggest we go into your bedroom and you’d be all over me.”

Cisco’s breath caught.

“It’s flattering, but you aren’t the first.It may be hard to believe, but I’ve had obsessed fans before. But never any that had something to offer me in return the way you do.So yeah, I was prepared to go there, if that was what was needed.Thankfully for both of us, it’s not.”

Cisco wished for the millionth time that anger helped him fight desire.Instead it only made things worse, revving his body up for a cathartic fuck. If Harry weren’t careful, Cisco was just going to grab him and show him exactly how well Eobard had trained him.Then things would have gone full circle, prey becomes the predator.

“You should’t be flattered,” said Cisco.“I’m not your fan.I’m not into you, Harry, the nanites are. Let me have control over them and I promise I’ll never look at you inappropriately again.”

“No.”

“Why not?” yelled Cisco.“You don’t need to coerce me.I can work for you.I gave Eobard the best parts of me _long_ before he put these machines into my brain.You think I can’t do the same for you?”

“You can, but you won’t.As you said, we’re strangers to each other.”

Now Cisco was insulted.“You think I’d leave your daughter in the hands of a madman, just because I don’t know you?”

“Yes, I do.And yes, you did, Ramon.You did leave her there. You haven’t been working with me.You’ve been avoiding me.”

“Because of the nanites!Listen, you have to trust me—”

“No, Ramon. I don’t.I don’t trust anyone, least of all you.I give you control over your nanites and what’s to say you don’t screw me over out of spite.”

“Because I’m not a spiteful person.” Cisco rapped his knuckles against his head in frustration, then fought to get back his cool.“You trust Barry.You trust Caitlin.They are willing to help you save your daughter without coercion.I’m not an evil person.I would definitely save her if it was in my power to do so.Why would you even think that I wouldn’t?”

“I haven’t told either them about Jesse.”

“What? Why not?”

“Because then they’d realize I wasn’t here to help them, that I was here to use them to help myself, and they wouldn’t trust me anymore.”

“Oh, Jesus.You’re an asshole.”

“Yeah, I get that a lot.I don’t care.I don’t need to care with you, you’ll work with me because you don’t have the choice not to.”

Cisco threw his hands in the air and walked away towards the dining table.

 

 

 

Well, Ramon seemed resigned.Good.Because despite his words, Harry was beginning to feel a little wigged out by the situation.Slavery was… bad.Even if he hadn’t put the nanites in Ramon himself, he was pretty much as guilty as Thawne at this point.

Which meant more than ever, he couldn’t let Ramon go.It would ruin everything if Ramon went and blabbed about it to his friends. They’d been burned by one person with his face already, they were barely ready to give him a chance.And he needed this chance, because without it, he’d be forced to work with Zoom against them, and that was worse.Zoom was not an honorable person.He might very well kill Jesse the moment Harry gave him what he wanted.Zoom might kill all of them.In fact that was the more likely outcome.

No he couldn’t give into that madman.And if it meant he had to do something utterly despicable to Ramon, so be it.At least Ramon would be alive at the end of the process.When Zoom was defeated he could give Ramon back his freedom, go back to Earth-2, and they’d never have to encounter each other again.

“Harry,” said Ramon.“Harry, wake up.”

Harry turned to look at him.He leaning back against the table, hands gripping the backs of the chairs to either side. His chin was demurely lowered.And he looked… he looked vulnerable.Like a puppy dog looking for a head pat.It would be adorable if Harry hadn’t just wronged the hell out of him.

“What is it?”

“Want to go to my bedroom?”

“What?”

“Just saying.Want a blow job?I’ll give you one.I want to give you one.”

“What are you talking about?I told you, I don’t need you for that.And I don’t believe you anyway.As you said, that’s the nanites talking.”

“Me, nanites, what’s the difference.I feel what they make me feel, Harry.That’s how it works.Us fighting has been nothing but one long tease.You won.So what do you say, let’s enjoy the spoils of war?”

Ramon brushed his hair slowly behind his ear in some strange attempt at seduction. and for a moment Harry wondered what it would be like to touch the tan skin of Ramon’s exposed neck.To kiss those full lips.Ramon was radiant. And dangerous.

“I really don’t … you’d never forgive me if I did.”

“I will if you tell me to.What’s one more sin, Harry.Especially a sin that feels good.Because you know you can make it feel really good for me.All you have to do is say the word.And there are all kinds of advantages these nanites have in bed, Harry.All kinds.Believe me Eobard explored every one of them. No gag reflex is just the start. I’m a thousand dollar whore with my mouth. Want me to top? I’ll always be hard for you, and I can can stay hard as long as it takes to scratch your itch.Want me to bottom, hell you don’t need to waste time preparing me or any of that. I’m ready to go.I’ll ride you ’til you come your brains out. I’ll do all the kinky stuff with you.Name your fetish, I have the same one — as soon as you tell me to.I’m the perfectly responsive partner you’ll never find anywhere else, Harry.I’m prime manmeat here, at your disposal. So what do you say.Help a guy out?”

Ramon grabbed his crotch, splaying his fingers over the bulge in his jeans provocatively.

Harry swallowed.“No.I think I’ll pass.”

“Or maybe you aren’t into dudes. Hey, I used to know what that’s like.Fine.We’ll watch porn together.They’ve got every kind imaginable out there. I had no trouble finding a porn actor who looked a little like you to get me through the dry spell of not being enslaved by a Dr. Wells.The actor only fucks women, which was a bit of a bummer for me, but maybe more your style.His cock is a lot bigger than yours, but that’s porn.I prefer the real thing.You can watch my downloads while I go down on you, and you won’t even have to look at me.”

“Ramon, I don’t want — that’s what Eobard wanted from you.That’s why Eobard did this to you.He was the one who needed that kind of … stimulation.Not me.”

Ramon laughed.“Yeah, no.Not at all, Harry.Eobard wasn’t some rampant cock, looking for a piece of ass. He thought that we’d make a few PDAs to explain my different behavior and otherwise go on as normal.But it really doesn’t take long to go from ‘why’ to ‘why not’.You’ll figure that out soon enough. Why not kiss me, manhandle me, fuck me.It feels good and no one’s going to stop you. Certainly not me.”

“Because there are lines that shouldn’t be crossed.”

“Yeah those lines were a thousand yards back that way.You crossed them already.”

“Are you saying you _want_ to have sex with me?”

Cisco clapped his hands and then pointed at him.“Now you are getting it!That’s my price, Harry.If you are going to make me betray my friends, the least I deserve is some mind blowing orgasms to help me forget what I’m doing. Hell you said you were prepared to fuck me before you knew about the nanites, so you can’t play coy now.”

He had but now that it was right there, he wasn’t sure about it at all.“I think Eobard messed up your head badly.”

“Oh he did.Epically badly.But since you aren’t going to allow me to un-mess it, there’s not much use in tut-tutting over it. So how about you put some skin in this game, Harry. You.Naked.My bed.That’s the price for my cooperation.”

Ramon crossed his arms over his chest with a look of dark triumph.

Harry narrowed his eyes.“But I don’t need you’re cooperation.All I have to do is order you and you’ll do it.”

“A-ah, there’s where you are wrong.Sure, sure you tell me to sit down at my workbench and do whatever task you come up for me, I’ll do it.But that’s not what you want, is it.You want _me_ to come up with your solution.Well, you can’t micromanage inspiration, Harry. Orders and creative thinking are incompatible.”

“But Eobard —“

“Nuh-uh.Eobard didn’t need me to solve his problems. He’d already worked out his plan decades before he shoved those nanites into me.All he needed was for me to run a few easy errands and not get in his way.There’s a reason he put off infecting me until the last possible moment.Because I was giving him _everything_ you want from me all the way up to that point.But afterward?He just had to satisfy himself with my body because my spirit wasn’t into it anymore.”

“So… you are saying, this isn’t going to work.”Harry almost felt a sense of relief.

“Not without some cost to you.Just how far are you willing to go in this sick game, Harry?”

Harry closed his eyes, pressed his hands together in front of his face, and weighed his choices.

 

 

 

Cisco considered waking Harry up out of his thoughts again, but decided against it. He needed time to let his heart settle down and get his chill back, before he blew everything by being too eager. 

If he pushed too hard, Harry was going to call his bluff.And it would be so easy for him to do.Just ask, _Answer truthfully, is any of what you just said to me a lie?_ He’d probably even expect that Cisco was exaggerating his eagerness to jump his bones.

There was a lie, but that wasn’t it.

Truth was Cisco did want sex.More than that, he _craved_ it, like an addict craves a hit. When he couldn’t have it was easy to push the frustration to the side, but Harry was right there, in his face, with that long perfect nose and delicious gangly body.Eobard was right, Cisco did miss the sex they had.He hated that he did, but he did. It had felt so damn good, every single time.Watching porn didn’t even come close to hitting the spot.

No, the lie wasn’t about sex, it was that Cisco couldn’t come up with ideas while under orders.The ideas for new inventions had come as readily to his enslaved mind as it had his free one.Eobard, ever over prepared as he was, just hadn’t needed him for that.

If Harry ever figured that out, Cisco would lose all the leverage he had and he wouldn’t even get laid as a consolation prize.His life would be a long, miserable exercise in denial, with Harry’s beautiful, hateful mug in his face every minute of it.

Don’t push, he told himself.Let him decide between the options I’ve given him.

“Okay,” said Harry at last.

Cisco’s cock grew fuller in anticipation.“Okay what?”

“Okay, I have some moral decency left in me. I’m going to trust you, Cisco.I’m going to trust that you are too decent a person to leave my daughter out to dry because I wronged you.”

It took a second to understand what he’d said. Then the lust evaporated in the face of enormous, glorious relief.

“You haven’t wronged me yet,” Cisco said, his voice rushed with excitement.“And if you give me back control over myself, you will not regret it. I will devote myself to getting your daughter back. Just repeat after me, ‘I give Cisco Ramon the power to reprogram —“

“Cisco Ramon’s nanites, I order you to turn off,” interrupted Harry.

Cisco held still with surprise and tried to feel for some change within himself.

“Did it work?” Harry asked.

“I… don’t know.Order me to do something.”

“Jump on one foot,” said Harry.

There was just the tiniest, perverse urge to comply, just because he was so used to following orders, but there was no force behind it.Cisco had no difficulty in stopping himself. 

“I think it did.I think I’m okay now,” said Cisco.

And then it hit him.He was free.Truly free.All those standing orders were gone.He could finally explain himself to Barry and Caitlin, if he felt like it.Or not, because what did it matter anymore.He could definitely reclaim his workspace at Star Labs.Things could go back to normal again.The ghost of Eobard was exorcised, and he was himself.No one was going to force him to do anything he didn’t want anymore.

“Thank you,” he gushed to Harry, spontaneously grabbing him into a hug that made Harry stiffen up like a board.Cisco backed off and wiped the stress sweat from his forehead with the palm his hand.“Oh god.Thank you so, so much, Harry.I owe you my life!”

Harry smiled a thin and bitter smile.“So first thing tomorrow, you’ll come in to Star Labs and help us defeat Zoom?”

“I promise,” said Cisco.“I’ll get you your daughter back.I’m so on it.I already have ideas.Oh, my god, Harry.You have no idea what a relief this is.You don’t know how hard it’s been for me.My head is mine again.I have choices.Oh my god.Order me again!”

“Cluck like a chicken.”

“Fuck off, Harry.”Cisco laughed.“I don’t want to!”

“I suppose that offer of a blow job is out then,” said Harry with a dry chuckle.

Cisco stopped and stared at Harry.The odd thing was, Harry was still very attractive. Maybe not quite as magically, deliriously, attractive as before, but still oh so much Cisco’s type.Oh good God,Eobard had always said that the nanites might be able to train a person’s brain, and he had spent _hours_ meticulously orienting Cisco towards himself.All those “adjustment” sessions must have dug a permanent furrow into his id.

“I know, not funny,” said Harry with what sounded like genuine contriteness.

“No, it’s not that,” said Cisco.“I… honestly don’t know what I want anymore.”

“Nor should you,” said Harry.“Sometimes I wonder if I know, and I have a whole lot less reason than you to doubt myself.I think I’d better go now.”Harry bit his lip a moment then headed towards the door.

“Yeah,” said Cisco.He looked away, momentarily gazing at the workbench and Dr. Light’s visor lay tilted on its side, waiting for Cisco to vibe it.He had responsibilities now and no excuse to shirk them.Vacation, shitty as it had been, was over.

“Cisco…?”

Cisco looked over at him.Something shifted.Or maybe it didn’t but it felt like it did.“What is it Harry.”

“I’m so sorry I did this to you.”Harry looked like he genuinely meant it.

“I forgive you,” said Cisco.“Don’t worry about it.”

Harry pulled up his hood and let himself out the door.

 

 

Out in the hall, Harry paused and bit the knuckle of his hand.Part of him was tempted to go back to Cisco and make things truly right, but then a flash of his daughter’s face in his mind stopped him. Jesse deserved no less than everything he could give her.It was his fault she was where she was.

He’d give Cisco a chance.If he’d been honest with Harry, then, no harm, no foul, as it were.But if not.If there ever came a day when Cisco put Harry behind Allen, or balked at something that had to be done…

 

 

_“Cisco” Harry said._

_Cisco looked up from his work bench, hair draping over his face, making him look so, so vulnerable, so lost, so helpless._

_“Cisco’s nanites, I order you to turn on.”_

_Cisco visibly sucked in a breath.“Harry?”_

_“Jump on one foot.”_

_Cisco lifted one leg and jumped.“Harry, what are you doing?”_

_“I figured that Eobard might make things easy for himself, just in case he had to pretend to let you go.”_

_“Harry, I thought we…”_

_“You probably shouldn’t forgive me, Cisco.But I’m ordering that you do.I can’t have you holding this against me.”_

_“Harry, it’s not too late —“_

_“I know it isn’t.Because you are going to forget this in a second.I just wish I had the luxury of being a good guy for once.”_

_“Please, Harry, don’t do this to me.”_

_“Cisco, I order you to forget that I turned your nanites back on — and everything that followed. And then I want your nanites to turn off again, until I need them.”_

_Cisco’s eyes seemed to glaze a second.Then suddenly he was there again, fear gone.So trusting.“What is it, Harry?” he asked innocently._

_“I’m sorry I did this to you.”_

_“I forgive you.”_

 

 

“Sorry,” repeated Harry to the empty hallway.“I had no choice.”


End file.
